I used to work at a Subway, and although the tuna was generally pretty good, the avocado always turned brown quickly. I'm sure it was still okay to eat (it goes brown in just a few minutes), but we were told to keep turning it over with a spoon so that the lower, greener avocado was on top and looked fresher. It felt very untruthful.

I know a lot of take-away sushi and sashimi places that will have raw fish standing out on display all day, and as a result I never buy any unless it's first thing in the morning. It's not worth it to eat raw fish that's been sitting exposed at room temperature all day.

That said, it really does depend on the individual place. I've worked in places that are absolutely amazing when it comes to proper food quality and hygiene. I doubt you can really apply any blanket statement about the shortcuts individual workers take, and how managers run things. And the same can be said of the food you buy at the supermarket, or anywhere really. Hundreds of people have had access to it between the farm and your mouth. Chances are, at least a few took shortcuts here and there, and some of these may have affected the food to some extent. It's a fact of life, isn't it?

I have been in the kitchens of most of the fast food and sit-down restaurants in my hometown. I don't know about anywhere else, but here most of this article is not correct. Bread that was on a table gets thrown out, ice cream machines are taken apart and cleaned once a week. The parts that are seem pretty mild; avocado is fine even when a little brown, and not everyone is an idiot who would contaminate a sandwich with her own blood (ew).

I have never heard of chicken nuggets, any brand, melting into a puddle when left out too long...and am disinclined to take that story at face value.

I'd be more worried about cross contamination on the grill (breaded chicken followed by a hamburger patty that ends up going out bunless to a Celiac) than anything else, to be honest.

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“A real desire to believe all the good you can of others and to make others as comfortable as you can will solve most of the problems.” CS Lewis

I've worked fast food/ice cream. The oil was switched out on a weekly basis and filtered daily. Every night the soda machine nozzles were taken off and soaked overnight in sanitizer. The grills were cleaned within an inch of their lives every night. The shake machines were washed down, the milk dispenser was cleaned out, the ice cream coolers were defrosted and the soft-serve machine disassembled and sanitized weekly. The grossest thing we ever had to deal with was the grocery section, one of the standing freezers went out and we had to empty it out and put it all in the ice cream freezers in the back storage room. Technically it was too cold for them, but whatever.

All of our toppings for food had its own time before it went straight into the trash. We were constantly stirring the ice in the ice machine when it got low so we were actually cycling through it.

The one thing I can't stand is soda machines with a detectable "funk" smell about them. It's like the ice machine went sour, or the nozzles are never cleaned off. There are a few local places that while I love how their food tastes, I will not go back because if you can't keep the ice container behind the bar from going sour, why should I trust that the rest of the food prep areas are clean?

The one thing I refuse to do is let any child I'm with go into a ball pit or communal play area if I'm the only adult. We had to wash the balls from the ball pit way too many times, and too often the smaller employees would have to go clean the whole play area. It was disgusting. Luckily our store got rid of it, but until we did, we were washing the balls weekly in the dish sink because some parent would come and tell us that their sweetie must have thought the ball pit was a public restroom, ha ha, isn't that funny?

This has nothing to do with my employment experience, but I've given up ordering salads with delivery pizza. The salad is always terrible, at least one of the vegetables seems "too ripe" or on the verge of being partially rotting, and the salad dressings are always the worst prepackaged kinds. There's nothing I love better than pizza and salad, but it seems the only way to get good quality is to actually go to a pizzeria.

In short: a 12-year-old did a science fair project where she compared the amount of bacteria in fast food restaurants' ice to the amount of bacteria in their toilet water. The toilets were cleaner 70% of the time.

In short: a 12-year-old did a science fair project where she compared the amount of bacteria in fast food restaurants' ice to the amount of bacteria in their toilet water. The toilets were cleaner 70% of the time.

That doesn't surprise me. If the ice maker isn't cleaned out regularly and the old ice is left to sit down at the bottom, you can get a really funky smell. Plus if the scoop that's used isn't regularly cleaned it's just transferring everything it's exposed to right back into the ice. Toilet water is rotated on a regular basis, it's never really old enough to sit around collecting bacteria.

In short: a 12-year-old did a science fair project where she compared the amount of bacteria in fast food restaurants' ice to the amount of bacteria in their toilet water. The toilets were cleaner 70% of the time.

That doesn't surprise me. If the ice maker isn't cleaned out regularly and the old ice is left to sit down at the bottom, you can get a really funky smell. Plus if the scoop that's used isn't regularly cleaned it's just transferring everything it's exposed to right back into the ice. Toilet water is rotated on a regular basis, it's never really old enough to sit around collecting bacteria.

That, and the toilet is cleaned with all sorts of chemicals which well may kill bacteria, but you probably don't want to be drinking anyway

Something I wondered is, how many people grossed out about the ice at the restaurant have scrubbed down their own ice makers at home at all recently?

I use bleach in my toilets, but I don't use it in my ice trays. I do run them through the washer occasionally. But I haven't got an automated icemaker and don't know that I'd ever think about it if I did.

Logged

“A real desire to believe all the good you can of others and to make others as comfortable as you can will solve most of the problems.” CS Lewis

Something I wondered is, how many people grossed out about the ice at the restaurant have scrubbed down their own ice makers at home at all recently?

I use bleach in my toilets, but I don't use it in my ice trays. I do run them through the washer occasionally. But I haven't got an automated icemaker and don't know that I'd ever think about it if I did.

Also, what type of bacteria are they talking about? Bacteria is everywhere but not all of it is harmful. If the bacteria in the toilet is pathogenic but the bacteria in the ice maker is benign, then I really don't care if there's more of the latter.